


you would find her in a polaroid picture, and she means everything to me

by intertwiningwords



Category: Spring Awakening - Sheik/Sater
Genre: (I guess?) - Freeform, American AU, Anna is a lesbian, Deaf Verse, F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Modern AU, Photographer Anna, Thea Rilow - Freeform, also wtf are tenses, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 10:26:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7754107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intertwiningwords/pseuds/intertwiningwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>anna loves taking pictures, and thea, her best friend/crush, is her muse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you would find her in a polaroid picture, and she means everything to me

**Author's Note:**

> i was feeling really gay today, so i wrote something really gay.  
> title is from "she" by dodie clark.

Anna had fallen in love with scrap booking when she was quite young. Her mother had loved making photo albums that overflowed with photos of anything and everything. Anna as a child, their pets, the flowers in the garden, ticket stubs, anything that held memory.

With smartphones around, having actual, physical photographs became a bit unnecessary and even uncommon, but as much as Anna loves having a camera at her fingertips, it just isn’t the same to her. For her thirteenth birthday, Anna’s mother gave her a pink Polaroid camera with tons of colored film.

Ten days after her thirteenth birthday, Anna kissed Thea Rilow for the first time. It was quick, and out in the schoolyard on a cool autumn day, and Thea had bent down and pecked her lips before running off to meet her siblings and walk home. Anna, dazed, had watched her go with wide eyes.

Anna wishes she had photographed every second of that afternoon.

Now, Anna is sixteen, and Thea is also sixteen, and Anna is inexplicably in love with Thea.

It’s hilarious that Thea, who has apparently forgotten about the kiss, hasn’t caught on yet, because Anna is  _ always _ taking pictures of her.

It’s not a scrapbook, because having a scrapbook of pictures of your best friend is just on the border of being creepy, at least, Anna thinks so. But one day, she’d love to make one. Right now, all the pictures are in an old envelope in her desk drawer. A picture of Thea sat on a swing with an e-cigarette in her mouth, her skirt showing off the fading stick-n-poke tattoos that cover her shins. A picture of Thea sat on Anna’s bed, mid-laugh, her head thrown back and her eyes squeezed shut. A picture of Thea grinning at the camera, catching Anna in the act, signing ‘I love you’ at the camera.

Anna’s favorite picture though, Melchior had stolen her camera and took it. Thea is sat on Anna’s lap, laughing hysterically at whatever joke had just been told, Anna’s arms around her waist. They had been slightly drunk, at a party at Bobby Maler’s last year, but Anna still remembers the moment clearly.

The two girls are now sat on Anna’s bed, and the pink Polaroid is on the bedside table. Thea is telling her about how Hanschen brought his boyfriend, Max von Trenk, home last night, and Anna’s fingers itch to grab her camera and take a picture of her as her hands and face tell the story in such a mesmerizing way, Anna’s sure she misses a word or two, but manages to piece it together.

“He’s very sweet, but I don’t think him and Hanschen will last,” Thea tells her, “I’m still convinced Hanschen is in love with Ernst. I’d approve of that more, I think. But hey, if he's happy...I swear, if that kid breaks his heart...” she trails off, genuine anger in her eyes just at the  _ thought _ of her baby brother having his heart broken.

Thea had always been very protective of her brother, which Anna admires. As a single child, she doesn’t really have anyone to be protective over, but she is kind of protective over Thea, now that she thinks about it.

She remembers the time Thea thought it would be fun to try jumping off her roof into the pool. Obviously, she had failed, miscalculating her fall just slightly and hitting the side, and wound of getting a giant scratch down her side. Because she couldn’t tell her parents, Anna had patched her up. She’d been shaking the whole time, but managed to do a decent enough job. There was still a scar there though, and Thea loved to change the story whenever someone asked about it. But it had terrified Anna to think of Thea hurt, to remember times she was, like the day she called her crying because her Uncle Klaus had smacked her so hard she saw stars, simply for wearing clothes he deemed “slutty” to Christmas dinner. It makes Anna's heart ache to think of it.

Thea has finished her story, and she lays back against the bed, her dress bunching up around her thighs. Anna averts her eyes, willing herself not to stare, until Thea taps her arm and she is forced to look again.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“I’m fine,” Anna replies, tapping her thumb against her chest and going to look away again, before Thea’s hands raise to speak.

“No, you aren’t. I know you aren’t.”

That makes Anna’s heart flutter, to think that Thea knows her so well. Anna knows Thea alarmingly well. She knows about the stick-n-poke tattoos that she usually hides in school with tights, the scar on her side from the pool incident, the way she laughs when nobody else is around, how affectionate she gets when she’s drunk, her family life, the fact she’s failing math, how she never wants kids, the ticklish spot behind her knee, and the vibrator she has hidden in her pillowcase for lonely nights.

“I’m okay, really,” she insists.

Thea looks at her for a moment, before reaching over and grabbing her camera.

“Smile!” she signs, holding it up and pointing it at Anna.

Anna covers her face with her hands. She likes being behind the camera far more than being in front of it. Thea snaps the picture anyway, and she pulls it out and begins to shake it.

“You look cute,” she grins, showing Anna once it’s developed.

Anna tries to seem annoyed, but Thea is too cute for her not to smile.

“You always look cute,” Thea adds, and that makes Anna blush.

“Says you,” she replies.

Thea rolls her eyes. “I’m not cute.”

“Bullshit.”

It really is the biggest load of bullshit she’s ever heard. Thea is adorable, though not many would describe her that way. That was simply because nobody knew Thea like she did. Thea seemed so cold, but when she and Anna were alone, she was silly and bubbly and downright fucking  _ adorable _ .

Thea raises her eyebrows, as if she’s challenging her.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really.”

Thea is moving closer to her, and eventually they are shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, and Anna nearly shivers at the contact. Thea’s head lowers and rests against her neck. She does shudder at that, because her breath is hot and unexpected against her skin.

Thea takes the camera again and holds it up like she’s taking a selfie on a phone, and takes a picture of them cuddled up like that. Anna is smiling at her in it, and Thea tucks the little photo into her dress pocket.

And then Thea looks up and into her eyes for a moment, before leaning forward and kissing her.

She takes a picture of that too, once Anna gets over shock and relaxes, her eyes fluttering shut as she kisses back. 

When they pull away, Anna is once again dazed, staring at her with wide eyes, but Thea doesn’t run away this time. She’s there, staring right back at her with a smile on her face and her cheeks are flushed and god, she looks like a piece of art.

Thea takes the picture and hands it to Anna, who shakes it until it’s fully appeared. They both smile down at it.

“It’s cute. That can go with all the other pictures!” Thea says.

“What other pictures?”

“The ones of me in your drawer.”

Anna can feel her face burning. “How did you know-?”

“I looked in there while you were in the bathroom the other day.”

“Thea ! Why?”

Thea shrugs “I was curious. You’re always hiding stuff in here. Don’t be embarrassed though. It’s cute.”

Anna is still embarrassed, but she forgives Thea without needing an apology. If she hadn’t seen the pictures, she might not have kissed her.

“I want to help make the scrapbook. And, I want to take pictures of you to put in it too.”

Anna grins. “Deal.”

By the end of the month, pages upon pages are filled with disgustingly cute pictures of the two of them, kissing and cuddling and laughing. It’s not organized and it has no color scheme like Anna’s other scrapbooks. It’s messy and silly, and it’s her favorite thing she’s ever made.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm so gay help.  
> also:  
> -thea is asian  
> -anna is in her chair idk if it was obvious or not  
> -the story about thea's scar came from @sa_confess on twitter!
> 
> hope you enjoyed this. x


End file.
